


About Geology

by stephanericher



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-20 10:28:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8245723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephanericher/pseuds/stephanericher
Summary: And as far as Keith’s concerned they don’t need that light because the smile on Shiro’s face casts enough by itself





	

“Can we stay here a little while longer?”

Keith’s never been good at deliberating and beating around the bush, even when it’s maybe ideal to lead up to one of his blunt questions with something. But he hates wasting time and social graces (and one of the best things about being here with everyone is that most of the time they’re good about it and they don’t tell him off for being rude or meet this side of him with hostility). This isn’t the kind of thing he’ll usually ask; he’s most often the impatient one with his key already in the metaphorical ignition, ready to get up and move on because time is of the essence, but that’s because most places don’t have this effect.

Coran looks at him, clearly puzzled, and then of course he asks the obvious. “You know saving the universe isn’t something done at our leisure?”

Allura looks as if she wants to say something too, but she waits. Keith shrugs.

“Yeah, but.”

And then Keith’s gaze swivels back, involuntarily, to Shiro. He’s not far, and his voice carries over to where they are, some of his words lost in the desert winds but the excitement in his tone so plainly evident. He’s uncovered a fossil of some sort, turning it over in his hands and explaining it to Pidge, crouched in the sand next to him. They pass it back and forth, scraping dust and dirt out from its cracks and holding it up to the weak light of the setting star. And as far as Keith’s concerned they don’t need that light because the smile on Shiro’s face casts enough by itself—Keith hasn’t seen Shiro shining this brightly in a long time, since before Kerberos (not that there’s anything wrong with the soft quiet of the way he smiles at Keith or at the team, or the quick grins when they pull off a difficult move; those are fine but they don’t convey that sort of uncontainable happiness that this does).

“Oh,” says Coran.

He sounds as if he’s going to say something else, but Allura cuts him off before he can even start. “Of course we can.”

And even though Keith knows they care about Shiro (and the feeling that they do, genuinely, is maybe one of the best things about this team) it’s still, somehow—relieving.

“Thanks.”

“Princess, are you sure?” says Coran, half-hesitant.

“They need a break,” Allura says. “And who knows? Perhaps the things they’re finding have some important clues.”

Keith almost snorts at this, but then he turns back to Shiro. Shiro’s already looking at him.

“Hey, Keith! Come take a look!”

He leaves Allura and Coran to needle at the details of their argument; as far as he’s concerned they’re staying. And Shiro’s smiling at him like that, with that same white-dwarf intensity, that Keith has to smile back at him. And even if Shiro wasn’t smiling like that, the sand covering his hands and caked around his fingernails and the light sunburn on his cheeks would.

“Check it out,” Shiro says. “This looks kind of like a trilobite, doesn’t it?”

There’s clearly some sort of exoskeleton buried in the rock in Shiro’s hand, and the ridges of its bones do resemble the pictures on the old slides the geology professor would project on the walls while half of Keith’s classmates fell asleep. Shiro runs his finger along the right side, his nail catching on the sand again.

This is the kind of thing—digging in the dirt, finding fossils and bacteria and strange chemical formations—that Shiro had gone to outer space in order to do. The dark side of Earth’s moon hadn’t been enough for him; had Kerberos gone right (and the notion makes Keith’s throat tighten because he’s already gone over the what-ifs too many times) that probably wouldn’t have been enough for him. Uncovering the mysteries of foreign worlds before knowing that there were any to begin with, the feeling of discovery, that’s what makes Shiro’s face glow like Jupiter’s aurora.

Keith hefts the fossil in his hands; it’s heavy, real, exactly the way he’d expect the ones on Earth to be if he’d found any, if he’d ever worked his way up into becoming some kind of archaeologist or excavator. The mysteries of outer space have never quite captivated him the way they have Shiro; there are still too many mysteries and hidden things back on Earth itself to ever get through, mysteries and unexplained phenomena he knows, questions he can’t answer. Outer space is a blank slate; there are puzzles but it’s hard to know where to begin or which questions a missing piece answers, what these governments are hiding and what these planets’ scientists know and don’t. Here, he’s free from bias (as much as he can be), but he’s also free from context. But as much as he doesn’t expect it to be interesting, it is, how much this planet’s evolution has coincided with Earth’s and how these similar, primitive creatures have survived as fossils (or perhaps they still live today in deep lakes, in the areas of the planet that haven’t assimilated into the vast desert).

“See those dents?” Shiro says, pointing at what look almost like holes in what is presumably the ancient creature’s head. “I wonder what those are.”

“Eye sockets?”

Shiro hums. “I don’t know if that’s where they’d be, though…”

“They’re aliens, Shiro,” says Pidge. “They could have eyes made out of cartilage protruding from their claws.”

“Ew,” says Keith.

Pidge smirks at him, and Keith doesn’t know if he wants to think up a retort, but then Shiro laughs, his chest close enough to Keith’s shoulder for Keith to feel the vibration and Keith forgets whatever he might have said, because the sound is so rough and clear (and Shiro probably hasn’t made it in such a long time). And Keith’s not aware he’s totally staring or that his mouth is open until Shiro leans in.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just…you,” Keith mumbles, and leans in farther.

Shiro’s mouth on his is warm, and he makes yet another pleased sound into the kiss, this time only loud enough for Keith to hear. When they break, Pidge is looking pointedly at them and if Keith got embarrassed about these kinds of things he probably would be right now.

“If you guys are busy, can I see the fossil?”

Keith hands it over, and Pidge begins to squint at it again in the dying light. Shiro sighs.

“Too bad we’re leaving.”

“We’re staying. Another day at least,” says Keith. “I asked Allura and Coran.”

Keith would like to bottle the happiness and surprise on Shiro’s face in that moment, but settles for leaning against him and smiling back (it’s getting cold; this desert is like Earth’s in more ways than one).


End file.
